For the uninitiated, footwork is a relatively fresh-faced distant relative of Chicago house. It generally hovers around 160 beats-per-minute and is named such because of its ability to incite "Fred Astaire on crystal" dance moves. If enjoying a full-length footwork album from the non-amplified comfort of your own home sounds like an ass-backwards task, that's because it is. Sort of like putting on Ride the Lightning before bed: you're not sleeping, you're head-butting walls. But with Room(s), Travis Stewart has somehow managed not only to wrangle in the off-the-cuff tendencies of the genre, but also create one of the more fully realized dance LPs in some time. The immediate attribute for listenability is undoubtedly the vocals. Mercifully neither chipmunked nor culled from forlorn '70s disco cuts, the samples sound as though they're plucked from modern-day pop radio, then liquefied with a side of amnesia. Sequencing plays an understated role in the album's completeness. Building from the Burial-esque crawl of opener "She Died There," Stewart navigates through the trill swerve of "Sacred Frequency" and eventually peaks at the ballistic groove of centerpiece "GBYE." When the highly addictive dust settles on restrained closer "Where Did We Go Wrong?," Room(s) will have resonated in more than just your feet.

Kasabian | Velociraptor! Four records in and Kasabian are still dodging that lazy comparison to Oasis, which is based mainly on their healthy egos and partly on how singer Tom Meighan sometimes pulls off the best Liam Gallagher sneer since Be Here Now — look no further than the way he stretches syllables on the cocksure, bass-driven "Re-Wired."

Trans Am | What Day Is It Tonight? Trans Am Live, 1993 - 2008 Trans Am are distillers of guilty pleasures, mixing fat AOR riffs with sleazy electronic accents and a propulsive attitude typically reserved for arcade soundtracks. What Day Is It Tonight? covers the DC-area band’s 20-year history with high-quality, high-energy live cuts taken from their many tours.

Various Artists | Casual Victim Pile: Austin 2010 The notion that regional musical flavors exist independently in American cities is quickly becoming an archaic truism, seeing as how the world really is a stage these days, at least in the digital sense.

Avi Buffalo | Avi Buffalo Look, I get it: the last thing we need right now is yet another band who can be described as “sun-baked,” “reverb-soaked,” or even just “psychedelic.” But Avi Buffalo (I know! An animal name to boot!) are worth your attention for a few reasons.